Former Hammers captain and assistant boss Kevin Nolan says something David Moyes did derailed West Ham’s season.
At the halfway point of last season West Ham moved within striking distance of the top four with a 2-0 win at Arsenal.
The victory cemented West Ham’s position among the top six.
And it saw a sudden clamour for David Moyes to be handed a new Hammers deal.
There was even talk majority owner David Sullivan was planning to sit down with Moyes in the new year to extend his contract.
Behind the scenes West Ham continued to insist the deal would be discussed at the end of the season.
With West Ham flying high and topping their Europa League group, it seemed likely to be a formality Moyes would be handed a new deal.
But many fans were growingly increasingly frustrated by the team’s approach and style of play.
It was not lost on some supporters and observers that several of West Ham’s wins had been somewhat fortunate.
All that was swept to one side while the team was getting results of course.
Nobody could have seen what was to come, though.
Why West Ham fell off a cliff in 2024
Injuries and absence of key players at the turn of the year exposed just how weak and threadbare West Ham’s squad was.
And from 25 games in 2024, Moyes’ side won just five.
So in the end when it was officially announced that West Ham were going to part ways with Moyes it was no great shock to fans.
While a ninth-place finish was respectable it was also seen as an anti-climax given the position West Ham had put themselves in midway through the season.
Coupled with serious misgivings over the style, the Hammers said goodbye to Moyes.
Speculation had been rife in the press for months, culminating in the Scot leaving at the end of his contract.
The Hammers appointed Julen Lopetegui as Moyes’ successor with the Spaniard unveiled on Thursday.
Prior to that it was announced that eight staff members in the first team setup had also left the club.
One of those was much-loved ex Hammers skipper turned assistant coach Kevin Nolan.
Supporters had been urging the club to keep Nolan in some capacity as part of Lopetegui’s new setup.
But Nolan has revealed Lopetegui has rejected the chance to keep him on.
Now Nolan has been discussing where it all went wrong for his old boss and the Hammers.
Nolan says something Moyes did derailed season
And he pinpointed what he believes to be the exact moment.
Nolan says something Moyes did derailed West Ham’s season.
The former midfielder admits the Scot’s actions created uncertainty which ultimately unsettled the players and created an unwelcome distraction.
“Obviously you heard the rumours (about Moyes’ new deal),” Nolan said on BBC 5 Live Sport’s Friday Football Social.
“It was clouded from January when the boss came out (publicly) and said ‘We’re going to talk about it at the end of the season’.
Moyes created unwelcome distraction
“You always see a change in players’ attitudes and minds (in those situations) and I think that always adds up because of the uncertainty.
“Players were then always asking us as coaches: ‘What’s going on? Do you know, have you heard anything’ and we hadn’t.
“As much as I would like to say (to the players) being in it, I knew what was going on, I actually didn’t have a clue.”
Nolan’s revelation tallies almost to the day with what West Ham fans witnessed on the pitch.
From the moment Moyes spoke out about his contract saying he was waiting until the end of the season, results nosedived.
It is also no co-incidence that West Ham took a number of big beatings in that time.
Looking back in light of Nolan’s claim – the players were clearly distracted and affected.
Whether Moyes can be blamed for speaking out as he did is another thing. The persistent questioning from the press over his contract meant he had to say something eventually.
But it is now clear he chose the completely wrong words when he did.